PaoloPunzalan.com

One time, when we were with Jenn in the grocery shopping, a conversation went like this…

PAOLO: Ryan and Janina, para kayong aso at pusa. Please try to get along.

RYAN: What dad?

PAOLO: You guys are like cats and dogs. Please stop arguing.

JANINA: I’m the cat and Ryan’s the dog.

RYAN: NO! I’M NOT A DOG!!!

(Fighting continues…)

Sigh…

Deep breath…

Ah the joys of parenting…

Don’t you see that children are GOD’S best gift? The fruit of the womb his generous legacy? (Ps. 127:3, Message)

“I don’t want to go to church because God’s going to ask for my stuff.”

I’ve heard this time and time again.  And it’s been said in many different ways.

No. 1, God doesn’t want your stuff, nor my stuff.
He can’t even wear it,  put it on, or drive it.

No. 2, God doesn’t need your stuff.
We live life thinking He wants our stuff because He needs them.  No!
What does the Psalm 24 tell us?

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. The world and all who live in it.”

He doesn’t need our stuff because He owns everything and everything we have came from him anyway.

So what does God want?

You really want to know?

It’s not your stuff He wants…

He wants our hearts.  Why?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

Discipline is such a major part of child training.  It is quite a challenge trying to balance grace and discipline.

When Ryan was 3, he was disciplined for not obeying his mother.

In an attempt to explain to a 3 year old that obeying is about pleasing God, Jenn said “If we obey, God is happy. But if we disobey, God is sad.”

To this Ryan replied, “You’re making God sad because you are making me cry.”

We didn’t know what to say after.  We were stumped…

A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them. Prov. 13:24 (Message Version)

Our minds are one of the greatest creations God has ever made.

With it we can solve the most baffling of problems, calculate the mystifying math equations and creatively imagine unfathomable concepts.

However, remembering something extremely important can be quite a feat – schedules, birthdays, anniversaries, names of acquaintances, scientific names, generic medicine, etc.

There’s one thing we can never forget.  If we do, then we’ve lost everything.

God.

Hearing the quote of Alexander Solzhenitsyn from one of my most favorite teachers, Ravi Zacarias, reminded me of the disaster that befall us when we do.

He was asked why Russia fell apart.

To this, he answers …

”And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again:

Men have forgotten God.”

I read a proverb to my kids over breakfast. I often do.

I have breakfast with them every morning before going to school for a couple reasons…

• To connect with them
• To set their day off on the right direction – with God’s word.

.

This morning, I read Proverbs 26:11 , “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

Pretty graphic word picture.  I asked my kids, Nathan, Janina and Ryan if they knew what it means for a dog to return to its vomit.

Janina says, “it’s when a dog goes back to his ’suka’ and eats it!”

To this, Ryan answers, “Whoa!!!! Cooooooool!”

I think he missed the point.